Missing data pose mystery in Gulf spill probe

[IDemo]

Source: msnbc.com news services

Records of critical safety test purportedly went down with rig

msnbc.com staff and news service reports
updated 28 minutes ago

A "black box" can reveal why an airplane crashed or how fast a car was going in the instant before an accident. Yet there are no records of a critical safety test supposedly performed during the fateful hours before the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico.

They went down with the rig.

While some data were being transmitted to shore for safekeeping right up until the April 20 blast, officials from Transocean, the rig owner, told Congress that the last seven hours of its data are missing and that all written logs were lost in the explosion.

The gap poses a mystery for investigators: What decisions were made — and what warnings might have been ignored? Earlier tests, which suggested that explosive gas was leaking from the mile-deep well, were preserved.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37125240/ns/us_news-gulf_oil_spill/

[Rosa Luxemburg]

1. one would think the owners of the rig would be responsible

one would think in this electronic age that it would be transmitted to shore

there's something fishy down there and it isn't fish.

[ShortnFiery]

2. Right on time - Data Dumps by the moneyed ruling elites. They never have to pay the price.

Nobody higher than "janitor" is going to be blamed for perhaps the worst oil leak in the history of the World.

Oopsie! Lost all the evidence ...

Down the Memory Hole with ...

the black boxes of the three planes from 9/11.

the 94 torture tapes destroyed by the CIA.

the pictures of tortured US Prisoners that President Obama would not permit release.

the WH email communications under BushCo.

records of Cheney's counsel Re: Energy with the Oil Cartel.

etc. etc. etc.

[villager]

4. evidentiary trails are not for our betters; you and I are subject to "evidence"

....at the discretion of our lords and masters, however...

[ShortnFiery]

18. Yes, heaven forbid we sneak a joint to ease nausea from our cancer treatment ...

we'd get our butts arrested and put in jail. However, powerful CEOs and Bankster Executives can take our tax dollars and trash our natural resources without a second thought.

They bad mouth us Proles as "The Chattering Classes" at their fancy soirees. They also joke about how f**king stupid we are to allow them to take our tax dollars while we fight for THE SCRAPS among ourselves.

If the late George Carlin is correct, they'll soon be asking for our Social Security.

Greed is never-ending for these dirty, rotten, filthy and stinking rich OWNERS of this nation.

[ladjf]

10. Good post. Thank you. nt

[ladjf]

11. Good post. Thank you. nt

[ShortnFiery]

19. You're most welcome.

:-)

[Control-Z]

17. Yep.

You just saved me the trouble of saying the exact same thing.

I'm so disgusted with the greedy, lying, privileged. More so right now than probably any other point in my life.

[bemildred]

3. "The dog ate my homework". nt

[troubledamerican]

5. Cui bono? Who benefits?

(1) Oil prices will rise and oil companies will gouge. Oil companies will make a killing.

(2) This will harm the economy. Republicans benefit politically.

(3) This will especially harm the economy of the Southeast. Rabid Tea-liban will become even more rabid. Republicans win again.

Almost makes you think "Inside Job" except Halliburton would never do anything like that.

[AlbertCat]

16. Halliburton would never do anything like that.

Halliburton is the crappiest, most incompetent company ever! I think I could do their job better. (except their job is to make money, not to do quality work) Are they the only company in the friggin' world who does whatever it is that they do? If quality meant anything, the easiest thing in the world would be for a rival company to take over all Halliburton clients by merely getting SOMETHING right once in a while. What other company could survive such a litany of fail?

[Downwinder]

6. Sounds like Toyota.

[Coyote_Bandit]

7. The Fox is Minding the Chicken Coop

and the fucking politicians are completely complicit.

Even after the blowout the Obama administration has allowed BP to maintain control of the cleanup - which of course provides ample opportunity to obfuscate and conceal the magnitude of the damage. Since I don't think Obama is a clueless idiot I have to conclude that decusion is a further reflection of his deeply entrenched corporate loyalties.

[JDPriestly]

8. This explains why they haven't just moved lots and lots of tankers in

to hose up the oil. That was the idea that occurred to me yesterday morning. And this man from Shell stated that this has been done before. MSNBC

It's the video of Jon Hofmeister of Shell on MSNBC

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/37125994#37125994

[paparush]

9. Rules, laws, regulations, standards..those things are for chumps like you and I.

[ladjf]

12. As you will recall, the two airline pilots who accidentally overflew

their destination about six months ago were banned from any further flying. In short, their licenses were revoked. But those who are responsible for this blowout will never pay a penny and will not be banned from the oil business even though their crimes are infinitely more dangerous that those committed by the pilots.

[deepplaya]

13. No Data = No Record = Not Performed = No Data

nt

[buckrogers1965]

14. So let's just assume the worst then.

Punish them to the full extent of the law, assuming that the worst, most damning decisions were made.

I bet the evidence would magically appear.

[DUgosh]

15. It's the Nixon 18 1/2 minute gap thing

Again.... sigh.....

[jus_the_facts]

20. Seven hours of data missing from Deepwater Horizon operations just prior to explosion

Source: AP

A "black box" can reveal why an airplane crashed or how fast a car was going in the instant before an accident. Yet there are no records of a critical safety test supposedly performed during the fateful hours before the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico.

They went down with the rig.

While some data were being transmitted to shore for safekeeping right up until the April 20 blast, officials from Transocean, the rig owner, told Congress that the last seven hours of its data are missing and that all written logs were lost in the explosion.

The gap poses a mystery for investigators: What decisions were made -- and what warnings might have been ignored? Earlier tests, which suggested that explosive gas was leaking from the mile-deep well, were preserved.

Pablo Martinez Monsivais/The Associated Press archiveSteven Newman is president and CEO of Transocean Ltd."There is some delay in the replication of our data, so our operational data, our sequence of events ends at 3 o'clock in the afternoon on the 20th," Steven Newman, president and CEO of Transocean Ltd, told a Senate panel. The rig blew up at 10 p.m., killing 11 workers and unleashing a gusher that has spewed millions of gallons (liters) of oil into the Gulf.


Read more: http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/05/seven_hours_of_data_missing_fr.html

---

:argh:

[ShortnFiery]

21. Down The Memory Hole?

:eyes:

[jus_the_facts]

22. Of course... can't have any proof around of their clusterfuckery.

[tbredbeck]

23. Wouldn't read too much into the 7 hours bit

Other data streams from the rig were mirrored onshore up to a couple of minutes before the explosion. As it states, the earlier tests which suggested there was a leak were preserved.

The more interesting part of the article discusses how Halliburton crew members showed BP that there was a probable leak. BP then claims it ran a different test, get this, from Oklahoma? WTF? Based on this test, from thousands of miles away, they decided to proceed?

[gtar100]

24. Those rich white people who run these oil companies,

they're going to be the death of us all. They are rats trying to make off with the cheese on a sinking ship. When can we be rid of them? Or are they an allegory for all of us. After all, we're all in this together (that's the part all those capitalists don't get).

[Ichingcarpenter]

25. Rose Mary Woods

Somehow I'm reminded of the Nixon tapes.
I an't buying it

[Art_from_Ark]

26. I was thinking the same thing

18 1/2 minutes of "accidental" erasure of a sensitive tape recording caused by a wayward foot.

[The Damned]

29. Yep

[tavalon]

27. My goodness! What a surprise!

:eyes:

Liars.

[Sodbuster]

28. It's probably in a big electronic hopper with the 5 Million e-mails having to

do with "enhanced interrogation.......

[Merchant Marine]

30. Depends on when transmissions were scheduled

Some ships I've been on made a position update every 12 hours, other every 24. If the rig was transmitting ever 12 hours and the explosion occurred 7 hours after the last scheduled transmission, it would make sens that that data would not have ever been sent.

[Igel]

32. That presupposes more complete knowledge.

That knowledge might get in the way of moral outrage. Can't have it.

We don't know, so we fill in our suspicions. Then we take our suspicions as fact, and any later reports are lies. Makes life absurdly simple. Simpler than possible, in fact. Which is the goal of much theorizing.

[rzemanfl]

31. ROSEMARY WOODS WORKS FOR BP???? Who knew? You'd

think she'd be retired by now....

[deepbluepa]

33. For sure...

she died in 2005.